Friday, December 21, 2012

I'm sure we've all been touched by something at some point in our lives. Clearly the recent events in Connecticut that took so many innocent lives touched most of us. The young man that committed the act was also clearly touched - unbalanced mentally.

Sometimes the most seemingly insignificant actions stir us emotionally - a look, a smile or a knowing nod - something shared between two people. Sometimes something as simple as a song -

A book can touch you in ways you never knew imaginable. The bible is an obvious choice for many. Others prefer works by J D Salinger, Jack Kerouac and others.

Sometimes a line in a movie touches us - stirs us emotionally

To be touched is to be human. It is - some might say - at the core of our humanity. Most people at some point in their lives need inspiration. We need to be touched by someone or something to get past some crisis real or imagined. We are communal beings.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Tis an appropriate topic for today. When you fail to have sufficient backups and your computer dies - as mine did 2 days ago - you RISK all manner of grief trying to get back online. Trust me - all manner is real, especially when jumping into the modern world of Windows 8 and IE 10 from XP and IE 8. So that's my tale of woe & risk - I know the sky is NOT falling but I resent having to read all this mew stuff. GRRRRRRRRRR.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Music. It's an art form that varies widely by cultures. It's quarter notes, half notes, notes, scales, bars, 4/4, 5/4, harmony, octaves - does anyone really know what an octave is? Who really cares? Fact is, throw bits and pieces of all those things in a bowl, mix them up, add some cultural spice, an instrument or 20, some people and you have music. Examples to follow - like you didn't expect that. :) Check out a couple of them.

You know music - it soothes

It stirs the soul

Some "orchestras" use very few instruments

﻿

﻿Music crosses cultural divides. This song was a huge hit worldwide in the 60s in the US - all in Japanese. We had NO clue what the words meant but the beauty of the melody and the emotion the song generated made it a hit.

Now about those octaves.... here're a couple of ladies with amazing vocal range

﻿

﻿By now you've guessed music is very important to me. It always has been but these days frankly it is a large part of what keeps me as sane as I am. If I had one day left and could listen to 10 songs only, today those songs would be - in no particular order - Pachelbel's Canon, Frank Sinatra's Cycles, Springsteen's Born to Run, Ed Ames - Who Will Answer, Kenny Rankin's Peaceful, Beatles A Day In the Life, We Five You Were On My Mind, Stones Get Off My Cloud, Gin Blossoms Follow You Down and Mozart's Symphony 40 and Dave Brubeck's Take Five. Yes - I know that's more than 10. Oh well. A somewhat eclectic mix that changes daily. I leave you with this...